1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in telephone dialing units, and more particularly, to a calling card, or so-called "business card", having party identification information thereon, as well as a telephone number encoded thereon and a dialing unit which is capable of automatically dialing the telephone number on that calling card.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The use of reading units for automatically reading credit card information is well known. Credit card verification units, both off-line and on-line are used in many commercial establishments for determining the validity or the account delinquency of a credit card user. In like manner, cards containing magnetically encoded indicia are used with automatic bank stations and the like for automatically dispensing cash upon the user inserting a card or introducing other keyed input information.
Telephone pay stations which include credit card reading mechanisms are also well known. In these systems, the user of the credit card inserts his or her credit card into a slot of a credit card reader. The reader will automatically read the identification number for that credit card holder for purposes of billing the number which is to be dialed to that particular card user. After the credit card has been read, and authorization given to use the telephone, the user can thereafter dial the telephone number of the party he or she wishes to call.
In these types of telephone credit card systems, after the card has been read, the telephone set initiates a verification signal to the central office indicating that the credit card has been inserted. In response to the signal, the exchange connects the telephone set to the central station which causes the card to be read and the information thereon to be sent to a control unit. Thereafter, upon complete recording of the information in the control unit, an enable signal is sent back to the telephone set.
One such form of telephone credit card system is more fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,983 dated June 17, 1986 and entitled "Central Office Powered Credit Only Pay Station". Another form of credit card telephone system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,123 entitled "Telephone Credit Card System". In this latter system, the credit card information on a credit card is read and transmitted to a general purpose computer. The computer is used for interfacing the telephone system with the telephone network. The computer is also used for recording the credit card information and authorizes the actuation of the dialer associated with that telephone set.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,123 to Hosterman entitled "Telephone Credit Card System" discloses a telephone credit card unit which operates in conjunction with a dialer for permitting the dialing of frequently used telephone numbers. A computer is utilized for reading credit card information for purposes of billing and a separate dialer is used for manually introducing the telephone number.
Heretofore, there has not been any calling card which contains party identification information and which ca be used to automatically initiate a telephone dialing operation. This would be desirable as a time saving mechanism and to avoid record keeping and, to some extent, maintains privacy of telephone numbers. Heretofore, there also has not been any telephone dialing mechanism which will automatically dial a telephone number upon reading the telephone number encoded onto a card member.